President Obama's get-out-the-youth-vote push

President Barack Obama won’t win the same historic numbers of youth voters that he did in 2008 — but in the critical final days, his team is focused on closing the gap.

They’re nudging students not to procrastinate about voting. They’re knocking Mitt Romney’s plans to cut education spending and reverse administration policies on gay marriage and abortion. They’re using celebrities to make the sale with free concerts and hosting after-work happy hours and college football homecoming tailgate parties.

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Friday, Obama continued his pitch with a half hour answering a wide range of questions on MTV, from whom he thinks is following in Bob Marley’s footsteps making politically-themed music to what’s next on same-sex marriage and climate change. The underlying message in doing the interview: four years ago, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia all narrowly flipped due to Obama’s big margins from under-30 voters —and this year’s race is even closer, so their support is even more critical.

The election is tight, and Chicago is wrestling with polling data that still shows sagging enthusiasm among the group as the campaign concludes, and they’re paying close attention to the 15 million people who are eligible to vote for the first time in a presidential election.

“We just have a lot more voters who aren’t regular participants in the election,” Obama senior adviser David Plouffe told reporters Wednesday, specifically mentioning “younger voters” when asked about the campaign’s struggles to energize the Democratic base.

Obama’s been calling in to radio shows and chatting with disc jockeys, and last week he stopped by the “Daily Show” for an interview with Jon Stewart. First Lady Michelle Obama appeared in a skit Thursday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” where she woke up Kimmel with a bullhorn on Election Day. On top 40 radio in Iowa and Virginia, Obama slams Romney with a youth-oriented ad — “C’mon man,” a tough-sounding male narrator says – critical of the Republican’s plans to lower education spending and pass tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

There are frequent free concerts in the battlegrounds, with performances on Obama’s behalf from John Legend, Trey Songz, Raphael Saadiq and Passion Pit, in addition to singers like Bruce Springsteen, who appeals to younger and older voters alike. Black Eyed Peas musician will.i.am led several hundred students to register after a recent Obama rally at The Ohio State University, just hours before the state’s deadline.

Obama, Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have also combined to make more than 30 stops in college towns since the Democratic National Convention — visits that speak to a much broader audience but also are selected because of the built-in student crowd — where they talk up policies popular with younger votes, including student loan reform, health care, repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During a rally last week at Ohio University in Athens, Obama gave the obligatory shout out to the school’s mascot – the Bobcats – and quickly pivoted to turnout, nudging the students “to go back to your dorm, grab that guy who’s sitting there eating chips, watching SportsCenter. Tell him he’s got to vote, too.”

“We have to get to the point where we can have a conversation about big important issues that matter to the American people without vitriol, without name calling, without the assumptions of the worst in other people’s motives.”

Barrak Obama - 2008

All Obama can run on is Abortion, Sex, Big Bird, Binders and Romnesia. What a fool. I can't believe he has any supporters really. But free stuff is enticing to fools.

The level of propaganda coming from the mainstream media has now reached unprecedented levels not seen since the worst days of the Soviet Union. This is our country and we are being denied the opportunity to hear our candidates directly. Remember the second Presidential Debate where Mitt Romney was questioning the President on Benghazi and from out of no where Candy Crowley shut down debate. Now, Mitt Romney presents an Economic Policy Plan in the heartland of America and we get zero reporting both from print and national media. Just compare the visuals presented daily. When Obama speaks we get images and sounds from the crowd, but when Romney is shown, he is shown in closeup and talked over. Believe in America - GenZ4Romney

I think the younger voters will break for President Obama because, well, he's younger. His thinking and policies are younger than that and those of the older Romney.

Romney is the grumpy grandpa constantly running down our government and our economy, chronically running down Europe and Europeans and most Americans. Romney's big advice to young men and women? You want an education? Borrow money from your parents. You want to start a business? Borrow money from your parents. He belligerently seems to want to boast and bully in international relations and maybe start another Middle-Eastern war. The crabby, out-of-touch Grandpa Romney wants to make life so miserable for Hispanics here illegally that they will self-deport. Tight-azs grouchy Grandpa Romney isn't for women getting equal pay for equal work if it means passing a law to ensure that women get a fair shake. The old geezer can't hide his age with a dye-job, for his opposition to gay marriage proves he's an old fuddy-duddy (as well as a deep bigot who wants to deprive groups of citizens from having equal rights under our laws). He wants to repeal Obamacare and take away insurance for millions of young adults. His repeal would also make women go back to paying more than men for health insurance and force them to pay for contraceptives out of pocket instead of through their insurance premiums. The grizzled Grandpa Romney wants to cut Pell grants and put government student loans back into the hands of the greedy bankers and make it harder for the younger generation to get a college education. He wants to give more big unaffordable tax cuts to the wealthiest, which will add to the debt young adults will have to shoulder and eventually pay off. Is it any wonder why the young will break for President Obama?

Romney promises jobs galore, but as governor (the result of the only election in which he wasn't defeated) Romney came in 47th out of 50 governors in job creation during his four years. At Bain, he was more known for handing out pink slips than jobs. The jobs, he sent to China. Can young adults trust Romney will create jobs for them when he promises to take away their health insurance, slash their Pell Grants, and privately looks down his nose at students that don't pay federal income taxes as self-styled "victims" that he'll never be able to get to care for their lives or take responsibility? Why do you think young adults are forced to live with their parents, AngelEyez? Because of Republican policies (which Romney wants to repeat) that gave us the Great Recession.

With our youth indoctrinated by the Public School System and so much Godlessness....I don't know if America will survive another generation.It is a sad day for our Country if half of the Nation falls for this REAL ********ter , and votes fro his evil Policies to continue.God have mercy on our Nation.Lord have mercy.

Romney promises jobs galore, but as governor (the result of the only election in which he wasn't defeated) Romney came in 47th out of 50 governors in job creation during his four years

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I hardly address you because I consider you one of the most ignorant bloggers around here. However, 47th out of 50 meant 4.5% unemployment. You heard that? FOUR POINT FIVE PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT. Frankly, Obama would love to have those numbers from the Romney MA Administration...but all he roots for is for people to drop form the labor market so that he can claim 7.8%.

FACT: Obama is the bulls***er around here. Here is another fact. YOU have lowered the standards so that anything remotely positive can be a smashing success for this administration. I can assure you that the bar for GW Bush was 10 time higher than it is for Obama. But at the end of the day, Obama is black.....and we have to lower the expectations for this man so that he can appear to be relevant.

Obama's campaign to win the naive children's votes: Jay Leno,/ The View,/ Vote like your lady parts depend on it,/ Benghazi was "optimal",/ Big Bird,/ Binders full of women,/ The Daily Show,/ We have these things called air craft carriers,/ MTV,/ Romnesia,/ The other guy is a "bullsh****r.

This is not a man in control of his faculties. Or the government...let's keep him as far away from anything important as we can. He is too shallow and unintelligent to be the president'

Tell us Politico, can you site a source for your claims that Obama is not going to get the same level of support from youth that he did in 2008? Quite a number of studies have been released of late saying that his support, as well as voter enthusiasm of the young is every bit as high this year as it was in 2008.

Gotta love these guys with their unsubstantiated claims. No sources, just statements of opinion put forth as if they are fact.

It's pretty simple why Obama is doing well with young people. Gen X'ers and Y'ers didn't grow up under the same jingoistic, fear mongering environment the boomers did, where commies were hiding under their beds and were going to nuke them in their sleep. Also, young people grew up with the internet, which allows them access to information to challenge prejudices applied by either family or society. In addition, they grew up in a world much more diverse and quickly evolving, which also contrasts the boomers who fear change and champion xenophobia.

Fast and Furious Scandal: New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels

(( On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers. Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.

Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.))

http://abcnews.go.com/A...

HERE ARE 5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT OPERATION FAST AND FURIOUS

1. 57 Previously Unreported Guns From Fast and Furious Discovered

One of the most explosive revelations made in the Univision News special involves 57 previously unreported firearms from Fast and Furious that were reportedly used in a number of murders and kidnappings.

After cross-referencing the serial numbers of guns used in Fast and Furious against guns confiscated in Mexico, Univision found that about 100 guns were used in crimes and 57 of the guns were not included in an official congressional investigation.

2. Fast and Furious Guns Used in Two Grisly Massacres

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

The other bloody attack linked to Fast and Furious guns occurred in September 2009 when members of a Mexican drug cartel murdered 18 young men at Salvarcar and El Aliviane, a rehab center in Ciudad Juarez, according to the report.

3. U.S. Gun-Walking Operations Conducted in Additional States, Expanded to Other Countries

The Univision News report also revealed that other ATF offices outside of Arizona initiated similar gunrunning programs.

An ATF field division in Florida reportedly launched “Operation Castaway,” which put weapons in the hands of criminals in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela, according to Hugh Crumpler, the lead informant in the case, who talked to Univision News from a prison cell.

4. ‘Confirmed’: Jaime Zapata Was Killed With Weapons From U.S. Gun-Walking Operation

Slain ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata. In Texas, even more weapons were allowed to cross into Mexico under ATF supervision, according to court documents and testimony of Magdalena Avila Villalobos, the sister of an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who exchanged gunfire with cartel hit men alongside Jaime Zapata on a rural highway in Mexico in February 2011. Zapata was killed during the confrontation.

Villalobos told Univision News the guns that killed Zapata, and almost killed her brother, were “not from Arizona and Fast and Furious” but from a “very similar operation.”

“Those weapons that have been recovered, it’s been confirmed that they were weapons used in the shootout that killed Jaime Zapata and wounded Victor Avila,” she said.

5. Mexico’s Cartel Violence Spiked in 2009 During Fast and Furious

Operation Fast and Furious was supposedly a program run solely by ATF that allowed nearly 2,000 guns to “walk” out of the United States and into the hands of high-ranking cartel members so they could be tracked and federal agencies could dismantle the drug trafficking organizations. But that’s not how it worked out. The agency ultimately lost track of the firearms, leaving Mexico’s powerful drug cartels even better equipped to kill.

Mexico experienced a spike in cartel violence in 2009 while Fast and Furious was in full swing, as the gangs fought for control of various territories, Univision News reports.

Fast and Furious became public after U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a gunfight with Mexican thugs in December of 2010. Congressional investigators, with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) leading the way, pushed for investigations and hearings, only to be stonewalled by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department and the White House, who claim Republicans’ interest in Fast and Furious is only political theater.

President Barack Obama moved to shield Holder and the Justice Department by invoking executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been after for years.

Meanwhile, officials in Mexico are looking for answers because for them, Fast and Furious isn’t some metaphorical chess piece that they are manipulating for political gain. The fact of the matter is, they have lost hundreds of Mexican citizens as a result of the U.S.-run Fast and Furious — and they want the truth.

“Americans are not often moved by the pain of those outside [their country]…But they are moved by the pain of their own. Well, turn around and watch the massacres,” Javier Sicilia, a Mexican poet who lost his son due to cartel violence, told Univision News.